Why So Quiet?
by Lil Drop Of Magic
Summary: Rachel Berry realises that one person hasn't said anything about her new outfit and she wants to know why. Spoilers for 2x02. T for language.


Disclaimer: I do not own the 'Glee' world.

A little drabble set during 2x02.

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Rachel left the glee meeting in a buoyant mood. Santana had actually given her a compliment _out loud, _(something that she had never done before) and Kurt had said nice things about her outfit too, although Rachel suspected that this was more due to his hope of New Directions performing a Britney Spears number for the assembly. In fact everyone (apart from Finn, obviously) had given her encouragement about her new look whether it be expressed vocally or through their body language.

Her forehead creased as she suddenly realised that this statement wasn't actually true.

Noah Puckerman hadn't paid the slightest bit of attention to her outfit. She remembered seeing him glance in her direction once when he entered the room and he'd given no visible reaction to her clothes but she'd been too busy soaking in Santana's approval of her outfit to think anything of it. After Noah had taken his seat he hadn't looked in her direction again for the whole meeting.

Rachel shook her head slightly. Why should she care what Noah thought of her Britney-inspired look? Every other guy at this school had stared at her today so what did it matter if Noah hadn't looked impressed? He was barely more than an acquaintance of hers (despite their previous romantic history). They never spoke; they had nothing in common apart from being Jewish and members of the glee club. Noah Puckerman's opinion didn't matter to her the slightest bit.

She glanced over at where Noah was standing, talking to Finn and she bit her lip. She _didn't_ care what Noah thought, _she_ _didn't._

It was strange, though, that he hadn't shown _any_ reaction to her more risqué style of dress. It was highly unlike him to not make some sexual remark when one of the female members of the school wore something provocative (Sometimes he'd say something disrespectful for no reason at all!). And Rachel knew for a fact that Noah liked the school-girl look as he had told her as much during their brief romantic liaison last year.

Perhaps Noah was sick? She felt slightly anxious at this possibility. New Directions may be a member short and Sectionals were still a couple of months away but that didn't stop her feeling slightly panicky that one of the team may be ill. As club captain it was part of her job to ensure the welfare of the members of the glee club.

So she waited for Finn to leave Noah's side before walking up to him.

"If you're unwell then you should really remove your presence from those of other people, even though it might be too late as in most cases the virus is spread before symptoms have emerged." Rachel said and Noah blinked slowly at her.

"Uh, _what?_" He replied and Rachel smiled grimly at him. The illness was obviously affecting his cognitive processes (which were not that sharp to begin with).

"If you're ill you should go home." She stated simply. If he didn't understand this time then she wasn't sure how to explain to him more basically.

"I'm not sick, Berry," Noah said, looking at her like he thought she was crazy (a look that she was very familiar with) before walking off down the corridor.

Rachel was briefly relieved by the news that Noah was not ill and then annoyed that he had quite rudely departed before the conversation was formally over. And now she _also_ didn't know why he still hadn't commented on her clothes! It was starting to make her feel insecure. The main reason that she'd dressed this way was because the Britney hallucination had made her feel beautiful and confident to dress as she pleased and she wasn't going to let Noah take that away from her.

She walked quickly after him and grabbed his arm when she (finally) managed to catch up with him. "What's_ wrong_ with what I'm wearing?" she asked and mentally winced at the desolation in her voice.

He gave her that crazy look again and said, "I never fucking said anything about what you're wearing!"

"That's the point." Rachel explained.

"Okay look, Berry, you're going to have to translate for me because I don't fuckin' speak psycho."

Rachel huffed and crossed her arms over her chest. Now that she had Noah's attention she was feeling quite embarrassed. What if he just said that he thought she was ugly and ridiculous in her clothes? She would be utterly humiliated. But it was too late to back out now. She looked at a spot on the floor and said, "Everyone has had some sort of reaction to my new look…except you and I want to know why. You're normally very vocal about things like this," she finished lamely, gesturing to herself.

Noah shook his head and muttered, "Fucking ridiculous," and Rachel tried not to let her embarrassment show. He thought she looked ridiculous? "Why do you care? You always get pissed when I say someone looks hot."

Rachel scoffed, despite her hurt feelings, "You _never_ just say that someone looks 'hot'; you make some sexist or tasteless remark that is highly offensive to women."

"It's not like I ever say it about _you_." Noah pointed out and she felt another sting at his words.

"I know and normally I am very grateful about that but today your lack of comment or even a facial reaction is making me feel self-conscious." She explained, her cheeks flushing.

"You want me to tell you that I think you look hot in your school girl outfit?" Noah asked.

Rachel tugged nervously at the hem of her shirt. "Only if that's what you honestly think." She didn't want him to lie to her.

"Berry," Noah said seriously, looking her dead in the eye. "You look fucking hot."

Rachel relaxed slightly. "Really?"

He nodded. "Course you do. You're dressed like a fuckin' wet dream." And with that he turned away from her again. She should be astounded at his rudeness but this was Noah Puckerman she talking to.

So she walked after him _again_ and said to his back, "But why didn't you say something earlier? And don't tell me it's because I would have been offended because that's never bothered you before!"

Noah turned around abruptly and Rachel struggled not to barge right into him. "Believe it or not, Berry, this isn't really about _you_. Things with Finn have only just started to get back to normal, d'you think I'm gonna fuckin' jeopardise that by hitting on his girl?"

"I…um, I don't, wow, Noah is that personal growth?" Rachel asked in amazement.

Noah shrugged. "I fucked up last year. I'm not going to spend the year without my best friend again."

"I see. Is that why you kept walking away from me, because you didn't want to cause Finn to be suspicious?"

"No, I just don't like you."

"Oh," Rachel said crestfallen and looked towards the floor.

Noah laughed. " 'S'fuckin joke, Berry. You're not that bad."

Rachel looked back up at him and sniffed. "Your humour needs some work."

Noah rolled his eyes. "Look, I don't have a problem with you, Berry but you being Finn's girlfriend means that I have to keep away from you."

"You don't think Finn trusts us to be together?" Rachel asked. Finn had said no such thing to her.

"No, at least not yet." He replied.

Rachel nodded. Nobody could tell Finn that he was being unreasonable in not trusting Noah yet but she thought that Noah had served his time. "Hopefully he'll come around soon."

Noah shrugged. "So, I guess I'll see you around, Berry."

Rachel smiled. "Yes, I suppose so."

Noah stepped back a few paces and looked her up and down, making her blush again. "What are you doing, Noah?"

"Just admiring the view," he said, smirking at her.

Rachel felt herself blush even further and thought that really, keeping their distance from each other was probably a good thing.

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A/N Hope you enjoyed. That's _my_ reason for why Puck didn't say anything to Rachel. Personally I just think that the writers didn't want to give us anything Puck/Rachel because they know how much we love it. I mean, we get excited if they're just standing next to each other!

Anyway, I shall get back to my other stories now.

Lots of love,

Lil Drop of Magic

xXx


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